What are Vaccines for HIV Prevention and Therapy? An HIV vaccine is an experimental strategy that aims to teach the body’s immune system how to fight HIV. Today there are no effective HIV vaccines. All of the candidates being studied are in the experimental stage. Preventive vaccine candidates are being tested in HIV-negative people, and therapeutic vaccines are benig tested in HIV-positive people. Some of these candidates are being tested to see if they can prevent infection. Other candidates are being tested to see if they lower viral load in people who receive the vaccine before becoming HIV infected from exposure through sex or drug use but can learn to partially fight the magnitude of the resulting infection.
Preventive Vaccine Investment In 2008, total global investment in HIV vaccine R&D was US$868 million, a US$93million (10%) decrease from the previous year. Public-sector funders provided 85% (US$731 million) of those investments, the philanthropic sector 11% (US$104 million) and the commercial sector 4%(US$33 million). Public agencies and institutions dominate R&D funding for HIV vaccines. Four countries (Canada, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States) invested more than US$10 million each of public-sector funds in 2008, and 18 countries invested more than US$1 million each. The European Commission (EC) is the second-largest funder, with US$25 million invested in 2008. Although the US had the largest decline (US$39 million) in funding from 2007 in dollar terms, the percentage decline was smaller for the US (6%) than for Europe (13%) or the remainder of the world (16%).
The philanthropic sector accounted for US$104 million or about 12% of the total funds disbursed for HIV Vaccine R&D in 2008. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust together accounted for 91% of all philanthropic investments.
Total investment by the commercial sector (pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies) in HIV vaccine development in 2008 was estimated at US$33 million (range US$18 million toUS$45 million), a decline of 61% from 2007 levels.
Therapeutic Vaccine Investment A therapeutic HIV vaccine would be a vaccine used to treat HIV infection. Therapeutic HIV vaccines are designed to enhance immune response to HIV to better control the infection. Therapeutic HIV vaccine research started in the early 1990s, with several trials in the US and Europe. Currently, there are no approved therapeutic HIV vaccines. However, vaccines are being tested in clinical trials with HIV-positive individuals. A number of HIV vaccine candidates are being tested both as preventive in HIV-negative individuals and therapeutic in HIV-positive individuals.
Therapeutic HIV vaccine R&D received an estimated US$23.2 million in 2008, with the US contributing 53% and Europe, in particular the European Commission and Italy, contributing 40%. In 2008, the Italian Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) began recruitment for a new trial of its tat-based HIV vaccine, which has also been under study for several years. European funders provide a greater percentage of the total support for therapeutic HIV vaccines (45%) than for preventive HIV vaccines (8%).
Vaccine Expenditures For 2008, spending by the public and philanthropic sectors on preventive HIV vaccine R&D was allocated to five categories. The categories with the largest shares were basic research (32%) and pre-clinical research (34%). The others were support for clinical trials (21%), cohort and site development (11%) and advocacy and policy development (<1%). Basic research investment increased 19% from 2007 to 2008, while pre-clinical research investment decreased by 28% over the same period.
